Born in Milwaukee April 18, 1913, Kennan studied music and composition at the Eastman School of Music and received of the Prix de Rome in 1936. He then taught briefly at Kent State University in Ohio before joining the faculty at UT in 1940. He left to serve in the armed forces during World War II and spent two years at Ohio State University before he returned to UT in 1949.

Though he penned work for orchestra, chamber groups, chorus, piano, voice and organ, his teaching and administrative duties often eclipsed his musical output. His Night Soliloquy for flute and orchestra, written in 1938, remained his best-known work.

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